


To strive for Heaven

by Corvina_of_Olympus



Series: We are all made of Stardust [5]
Category: Aldnoah.Zero (Anime), His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2016-02-27
Packaged: 2018-05-23 14:07:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6118756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corvina_of_Olympus/pseuds/Corvina_of_Olympus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aldnoah.Zero dæmon AU</p><p>An exploration of motives and emotions of Orbital Knights and their dæmons; as Martians and Terrans are all just humans who succeed and fail and have their souls at their side.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To strive for Heaven

**Author's Note:**

> Guess who's back  
> Back again~
> 
> I've actually wanted to do this for a long time, but I was really stressed during the last weeks because of important exams and all kinds of other stressful stuff. But now I'm back; and sorry to all of you who have waited for a continuation of this series!
> 
> As always: I'm not a native speaker, so I apologise for eventual mistakes and weird-sounding sentences. Please inform me if you find something! :)

~~~Cruhteo~~~

Frankly said, Cruhteo felt disgusted at himself. Ashamed, even. The egregious loyalty of the Terran lying unconsciously at his feet dawns on him slowly and the knowledge that he, a honourable Orbital Knight of the Vers Empire, has rushed to a fatal misconception creeps into his mind like a poison. 

He realises that this is what failure feels like. He had failed his Princess and by that the empire he had sworn loyalty to, just because he had let himself be blinded by the shell of a lowly Terran that held the soul of a true knight. 

Slaine Troyard went enormous lengths with what little power he had, and Cruhteo finally believes to understand why the Princess tolerated the presence of this boy he saw as an useless nuisance that didn’t know its place. 

He shifts the bruised and battered body into his lap, apologising to the unconscious boy even though he knows it is futile because he thinks that at least that is his duty right now. 

Nesida nudges the motionless body of the husky that lies on the floor bound by chains. The Terran’s dæmon had fought until the last moment and had to be restrained by the dæmons of the two servants in the room until he, like his human, wasn’t able to stand the pain anymore and lost consciousness.  
The goshawk sharply commands the two large dog dæmons of the servants to remove the chains and her voice only trembles a little.  
Nesida followed the code of honour just as fiercely as her human did, but she also knows how severe their failure is.  
If they had listened to Troyard sooner, they could have done something about the traitors amongst their own and the forces that wanted war against the will of their Princess. 

Cruhteo bellows at the servants -who still stare at the scenery with a dumbfounded expression- to treat Troyard’s wounds and take care of his dæmon. He storms out of the room with Nesida in tow. Their highest priority is to find the Princess and ensure her safety. For that to happen it is necessary to offer an armistice to the opposing forces and then find and eliminate the traitor. They rush to the commando bridge in order to do just that, both shoving their inner turmoil aside for later as it just hinders them from doing what’s necessary now.

They will find and protect the Princess. Not only is that an Orbital Knight’s duty, but it is also the only thing Cruhteo and Nesida can do to honour Slaine Troyard’s actions and maybe be able to hope for forgiveness.

______________________________________________________________________

~~~Saazbaum~~~

Slaine would always stand out, if only because of Voyasha. She was a dog and not a bird like the dæmons of those Aldnoah was bestowed upon by birthright. Slaine looked as if he didn’t belong into the higher ranks where treachery and deceit were daily occurrences, but apparently he was more competent in the politics of the Empire than most of the counts would ever be. 

‘Including me’ Saazbaum muses as he stares at the frizzy transmission of the Terran boy whom he calls his son now.

The monitors around him are beeping in alarm and he starts smiling as Slaine informs him of his imminent death. Shetys’ claws are digging into his shoulders and draw blood as she lets out a distressed caw. She had always represented the emotional, uncontrolled part of him and he thinks of Voyasha and that he _should have known._  
Slaine had a dog’s amazing loyalty, but it was foolish of Saazbaum to think that it could ever shift to him.

He can see the violet trails of the Tharsis’ missiles appearing between the stars and knows that there are only seconds left for him, even though he has so much to say.

“Goodbye, father.”

Saazbaum feels like laughing. “Not too shabby”, he answers as Shetys allows herself to nestle to his head for the last time. 

The violet light embraces them.  
He thinks of Orlane as Shetys dissolves into golden Dust. 

_“Don’t be like them, my son.”_

______________________________________________________________________

~~~Mazuurek~~~

It was said that Earth didn’t belong to the Terrans. That they, as an inferior species, had no right to live on the beautiful blue planet while the Versians, favoured with the Light of Aldnoah, had to make do with the barren wasteland of the red planet that once was called Mars. It was said that Terrans were merely parasites, destroying their source of life.

It was said that it was an Orbital Knight’s rightful duty to eradicate those parasites and claim the blue planet back.

If all that was true, then why did both Terrans and Versians have dæmons taking the forms of the magnificent creatures of Earth? Why did it seem like all their souls seemed to be equally linked to Earth?

Those were questions Mazuurek had often asked himself back when he was a child, and they had never fully left him. Of course he had never been foolish enough to actually voice them. He wasn’t as clueless as his looks and behaviour suggested, otherwise he would have never been able to hold his own in the hierarchy of Vers. He was quite content that most of the other Counts seemed to overlook that fact in their endless struggle for more power.  
Mazuurek liked to keep the attention away from himself so he could emerge himself in his studies about Earth and its inhabitants. 

His original plan had been to stay in the satellite belt and watch the other Counts fight out their rivalries on Earth, but his former mentor Count Barouhcruz had all but persuaded him to let his castle descent and it would have left him in an unfortunate position if he refused. 

The place of his landing had been definite from the start. The Arabian desert had few inhabitants, so Mazuurek could reduce casualties amongst Terrans to a minimum. Major cities and seemingly abundant resources were still in close proximity, so there was a chance that the other Counts wouldn’t become suspicious of his “unreasonably peaceful approach” (if they weren’t too busy with fighting each other to care, anyway). 

The last point was that this place might be the best location for his studies. 

Clad in the simple garb of the natives, Mazuurek admired the endless dunes of the desert illuminated by the silver light of what remained of the Earth’s moon. Mashela circles above him, enjoying the opportunity to fly freely. The saker falcon was a species native to this region and important to the hunting culture of the native Terrans, Mazuurek had read. It was only natural that Mashela felt at home here, and maybe the place where his dæmon’s form originated would help him learn something about Terrans, Versians and himself. 

And he _did_ learn something about Terrans, but not in the way he thought he would.

While his dæmon was occupied, the Count looked back at the map and the little instrument in his hands – he believed it was called a compass. 

The actions of that Terran boy had startled him, to say that much. His plan was utterly reckless and depended solely on trusting one of the enemy’s high-ranking commanders.  
Then again, Mazuurek was intrigued by that idea. He was too interested in finding out Slaine Troyard’s objective to vacate that plan, and some part of him was aware of the fact that the Terran boy knew that, too. 

Mazuurek laughs to himself. 

_‘The rest of Vers will be surprised by the intelligence of the so-called parasites.’_

Slaine Troyard and Inaho Kaizuka. Without any doubt they were the deciding factors of this war right now.  
Both worlds were shaken up by Terran boys, and most Versians didn’t even seem to realise it. 

Mazuurek looked forward to the battle between the boys of Earth.  
Above him, Mashela shouts that she spotted his landing castle. 

_‘Let the true game begin, then.’_

______________________________________________________________________

~~~Barouhcruz~~~

Count Barouhcruz and his dæmon stare at the red Kataphrakt in stunned silence. They see the Herschel flying back towards the Moon Base; and they silently admire this last act of bravery of their comrade.

“There they both go, as defeated men and into their last battle”, Dilis muses. 

Barouhcruz chuckles to himself. “Thinking about it, isn’t it is strange that the servant and the Terran are the ones that teach us about true loyalty? It isn’t loyalty to a royal figurehead or the puny idea of a nation; but instead the loyalty to one’s ideals and by that to themselves.” 

The red kite turns her head towards him and stares at him with her sharp eyes. “Loyalty is foolish; that’s what we were taught.”

Barouhcruz nods mindlessly. 

The loyal ones were defeated. The traitors gained glory.  
_“Always be on the winning side”_ , his father had said.

But was dying to stay true to yourself losing?

With a deep breath he turns the Octantis around. 

“A knight shall stay on the winning side, and he must never flee from a battle. That is our ideal; and staying loyal to it is worth dying for.”

Dilis spreads her wings in pride. “We are traitors, not cowards. We’ll show the servant and the Terran the bravery of an Orbital Knight.”  
Their Stygis Squadron follows them.

“And we’ll die together with our comrades, like a true knight should.”

**Author's Note:**

> Dæmons that appear:  
> -Cruhteo: Nesida (goshawk, _Accipiter gentilis_ )  
> -Saazbaum: Shetys (crowned eagle, _Stephanoaetus coronatus_ )  
> -Mazuurek: Mashela (saker falcon, _Falco cherrug_ )  
> -Barouhcruz: Dilis (red kite, _Milvus milvus_ )
> 
> I liked the idea that having the Aldnoah activation factor in their genes causes the nobles' dæmons to settle as birds. This is a parallel to the witches from His Dark Materials who also always have bird dæmons. Witches have something humans don't have (magic) and the Martian nobility does, too (Aldnoah). A bonus was when I realised that birds are the only vertebrates capable of flight - aside from _bats_.  
>  (Slaine doesn't have a bird dæmon because he wasn't born with the "Aldnoah gene" like the (younger) Counts were.)
> 
> Oh, and in case you are wondering why I always add the zoological names to the dæmon list: I'm just obsessed with Latin names ^^"


End file.
